Anyone who qualifies for the World Series of Poker main event online this year has a new decision to make. Take the money and play, or take the money and run.

With the new rules in effect at the WSOP barring online poker sites from taking part, players who win seats in the main event will be have to receive the money from the site and register themselves. So basically you can take your $10,000 and stand in line for hours to register, or take your $10,000 and spend it anyway you see fit. Here are some of the pros and cons of each scenario.

Playing the tourney:

Pro – You make the money and end up with some cash anyway.

Con – You bust out early and end up with nothing.

Pro – You win the WSOP main event, become the next big poker spokesperson and never have to work again.

Keeping the $10,000:

Con – You miss out of the grandiose spectacle that is the WSOP main event.

Pro – You have $10,000 with which to do whatever you want.

Con – You could have won a whole lot more than $10,000 in the tourney.

Faced with these two situations, I’m going to have to go with option C. That would be play with your new $10,000 online and try to make as much money as you can before the main event begins. If you’re good enough to qualify for the WSOP online, then you should be good enough to win some cash at pretty high stakes.

Then after possibly doubling or tripling your initial $10,000, withdraw the $10,000 you need to play the main event and take a crack at the millions available to the WSOP winner.

You’ve got until June 18th to win your seat at the 2007 WSOP by playing online poker.